How to fix iMessage waiting for activation error on iOS

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When you get a new iPhone or have just hard reset yours, you will have to activate iMessage and FaceTime in order to use it on either your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. During the activation process, you might see messages displaying ‘Waiting for Activation’, ‘Activation Unsuccessful’, ‘An Error Occurred During Activation’, or ‘Could not sign in, please check your network connection’.

While both of these errors are irritating, one that is more common and even more irritating is the ‘iMessage waiting for activation’ error that to many people is very challenging to fix.

Read Also: An error occured during iMessage authentication? Here’s a fix

In this post, we are going to help you identify some of the common problems that might cause the ‘iMessage waiting for activation’ issue and how to fix them. First of all, when you are activating your iPhone and you get a message that says it’s awaiting activation, the first thing you should check is the date your Phone is set to. If your iOS 11, 10, or 9 device has been set to a different date or time zone than you are, you will sure enough get this error.

Alternative solution

Another reason for this error could be failure to enter the correct number in the iPhone app. To solve this, simply visit the ‘My Number’ section and enter your phone number in order for the activation to take place.

If the problem persists even after entering the phone number, this could be an issue with the cellular network hence you need to move to a place that has a good network coverage. Otherwise, turn on the Airplane mode and then turn it off. Sometimes this simple fix normally fixes network problems and could be just the right fix you need for this problem.

If you still haven’t found a fix for the ‘iMessage awaiting activation’ error by this point, then you need to ask your network carrier if there’s any problem with accessing the iMessage or FaceTime errors. If it is a cellular network blocking problem, wait for it to be fixed and you will be able to activate iMessage without any problem on your iOS 7, 8, 9, and 10 without any problems.

In the event that you had already signed into your iMessage or FaceTime app using your Apple ID before it eventually stopped working, you need to try signing out of the Apple ID.  First of all, Open iMessage and scroll down to Send & Receive and then sign out of Apple ID. After signing out, turn off iMessage from settings and then turn on iMessage again and log in to your Apple ID.

If this method is successful, you should be able to log in to the app without any problems. This process has been proven to work on some devices ranging from the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 6, and 7. It should also work on iOS 6,7, 8, 9, and 10.

If all the above methods do not work and you still get that unpopular message that says ‘iMessage waiting for activation’ and your iPhone, iPad, or iPod freezes, then unfortunately you will have to factory reset your device.

The reason for this process is that sometimes third-party applications could be responsible for activation error on your iMessage and FaceTime hence clearing all of them will eventually solve the problem.

This last solution should only be arrived at if the others have failed completely. If the problem isn’t fixed even after you have factory reset your iPhone, then it could be a bigger issue and the best thing to do in this case is to drop your iPhone at the nearest service center and explain the issue you are facing with iMessage and FaceTime. They should be able to solve the problem for you.